#vatican synod

[themoabmercury]

Vatican synod ends with divide over women deacons and LGBTQ+

Sorry, bishops, but "tradition" is no excuse when the answers are so easy.

"Deacon" is a job like any other. The central question is not whether we women should do it, but whether our experience, expertise, and God-given gifts enable us to do it.

As with all job applicants, these questions must be answered on a case-by-case basis. This will be just as true when the time comes to consider women in the priesthood.

Being LGBTQIA is not an act of will; it is an act of God that can be clearly seen in one's genetic map. Science satisfies Romans 1:20.

Even Paul said that priests should only be celibate if they could. There is literally no biblical prohibition of married priests.

None of this is revolutionary, liberal, perverted, or destructive. There is nothing in the Bible to prohibit any of this so-called colonialism, but everything in the Bible to command it.

The question for bishops who use human constructs to maintain the oppression and exclusion of so many of God's people is this: Do you follow Christ, or do you follow the Church?

It's not the same thing.

[apesoformythoughts]

“No more policy statements, no more consultative documents, no more morale-boosting messages to all staff. This was Hell, but you had to draw the line somewhere.”

— Faust Eric

[awesomehistoryloverblog]

The Macabre Corpse Trial of Pope Formosus

The Cadaver Synod (Corpse Trial) of Pope Formosus Yes, you read that right.  In 897, the new, Pope Stephen VI, held such hatred and animosity toward his predecessor, Pope Formosus, that he put him on trial in Rome.  One small detail, Pope Formosus had been dead for 7 months.  Undeterred, Pope Stephen ordered his body exhumed from St. Peters.  Then, Formosus’ decaying corpse was dressed it…

[sheltiechicago]

Vatican City

Priests, bishops and cardinals preside at Holy Mass with the College of Cardinals for the opening of the XVI ordinary general assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Vatican City. Women were allowed to vote for the first time at the meeting of bishops as the Vatican sought to address some of the church’s thorniest issues as part of an agenda that has rattled many conservatives.

Photograph: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images

[cathnews]

Germany's synodal path has failed

Germany’s synodal path has failed

Cardinal Walter Kasper says the German way forward on its “synodal path” has failed. Kasper, who is the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity’s President Emeritus, points to the Second Vatican Council’s path in synodal fellowship. The Church would only have a future if it continued on that path – a path that the German synodal path “had failed to take,” he says. This won’t mean acting…

[afeelgoodblog]

🦜 - Why did the parrot learn to video call? Because he wanted to see his tweetheart!

The Best News of Last Week - May 2, 2023

1. Engineers develop water filtration system that permanently removes 'forever chemicals'

Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a filtration system that would permanently remove "forever chemicals" from drinking water. This news comes after a recent study revealed nearly 200 million Americans have been exposed to PFAS in their tap water. Dr. Madjid Mohseni, a professor at British Columbia, shares his research.

2. Berkeley diner provides free meals to anyone who's hungry, no questions asked

The Homemade Cafe in Berkeley, California, is giving away free breakfasts to anyone who is hungry, no questions asked. Owner Collin Doran's Everybody Eats Program started when he saw people panhandling outside his diner. Customers can add $5 to their bill to help the program or grab a coupon for a free meal. Doran's act of kindness has resulted in a 15% increase in business, and he hopes that more businesses will follow his lead in making the world a better place.

3. Pope Francis gives women right to vote in bishops’ meeting for first time

Pope Francis has decided to give women the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, an unprecedented change that reflects his hopes to give women greater decision-making responsibilities.

Francis approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world’s bishops together for periodic meetings, following decades of demands by women to have the right to vote.

4. US adult cigarette smoking rate hits new all-time low

U.S. cigarette smoking dropped to another all-time low last year, with 1 in 9 adults saying they were current smokers, according to government survey data released Thursday. Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, heart disease and stroke, and it’s long been considered the leading cause of preventable death. In the mid-1960s, 42% of U.S. adults were smokers. The rate has been gradually dropping for decades, due to cigarette taxes, tobacco product price hikes, smoking bans and changes in the social acceptability of lighting up in public.

Last year, the percentage of adult smokers dropped to about 11%, down from about 12.5% in 2020 and 2021.

5. Scientists taught pet parrots to video call each other - and the birds loved it

When humans are feeling lonely, we can call or video chat with friends and family who live far away. The idea for this study was not random: In the wild, parrots tend to live in large flocks. But when kept in captivity, such as in people’s homes as pets, these social birds are often on their own. Feeling bored and isolated, they may develop psychological issues and can even resort to self-harming tendencies like plucking out their feathers. New research suggests that these chatty creatures may also benefit from virtually connecting with their peers.

Domesticated parrots that learned to initiate video chats with other pet parrots had a variety of positive experiences, such as learning new skills. The parrots that learned to initiate video chats with other pet parrots had a variety of positive experiences, such as learning new skills including flying, foraging and how to make new sounds. Some parrots showed their toys to each other.

I wanted to see this experiment so bad, so here’s a video from the paywalled study. I uploaded it on my youtube channel.

6. World’s First Carbon Import Tax Approved by EU Lawmakers

The European Union’s parliament approved legislation to tax imports based on the greenhouse gases emitted to make them, clearing the final hurdle before the plan becomes law and enshrines climate regulation in the rules of global trade for the first time.

Tuesday’s vote caps nearly two years of negotiations on the import tax, which aims to push economies around the world to put a price on carbon-dioxide emissions while shielding the EU’s manufacturers from countries that aren’t regulating emissions as strictly, or at all. The tax gives credit to countries that put a price on carbon, allowing importers of goods from those countries to deduct payments made for overseas emissions from the amount owed at the EU’s borders.

7. Genetic Driver of Anxiety Discovered

An international team of scientists has identified a gene in the brain responsible for anxiety symptoms and found that modifying the gene can reduce anxiety levels, offering a novel drug target for anxiety disorders. The discovery highlights a new pathway that regulates the brain’s response to stress and provides a potential therapeutic approach for anxiety disorders.

Critically, modification of the gene is shown to reduce anxiety levels, offering an exciting novel drug target for anxiety disorders.

That's a driver I'd like to uninstall.

----

That's it for this week :)

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Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Pope Paul VI

1897-1978

Feast Day: May 29

Saint Pope Paul VI, born Giovanni Battista Montini, was elected pope in 1963 during Vatican II and reigned until his death in 1978. He held various positions in the Church and helped political refugees and prisoners of war during WWII. In 1953 he became Archbishop of Milian and was know as “The Archbishop of Workers”. During his papacy he’s famously known for his encyclical “Humanae Vitae” (Of Human Life) but also for social advancements, unity between Christians, reaching out to non-Christians, establishing the Synod of Bishops and promoting world peace. He died on the Feast of the Transfiguration.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[cheerfullycatholic]

Hello, I'm a Catholic who recently signed up for Tumblr and I unfortunately feel like I really did not understand what I was getting into with this website. For the last several weeks, I've been subjected to a campaign of internet stalking by a large gang of insidious thugs on this site. And I would brush it off as normal internet trolling, except that they seem to really know a lot about our faith!

The problem started a few weeks ago, when a "Tumblr famous" user known as "r4cs0" messaged me. He claims to be the closest living relative of Pope John Paul I, who died after only 33 days on the throne. When a Pope dies, the death must be verified by striking him three times in the head with a silver hammer. According to r4cs0, a church historian has recently examined the hammer used on John Paul I and learned it was only 87% silver. Per the canon laws of 1919, the hammer must be at least 90% silver to be considered true silver. Because of this and other "irregularities" regarding the death, r4cs0 insists that Pope John Paul I is still LEGALLY alive and still the Pope! And as his closest living heir, this makes r4cs0 the highest living authority in the Catholic Church until the corpse is exhumed and struck with the correct hammer!

Now if this isn't crazy enough, it gets worse. r4cs0 has written a Papal bull called In Tergo Intrantes. Of course it's in Latin so I can't read it, but r4cs0 says that it authorized certain Vatican authorities located in the Tower of Nicholas V to grant special dispensations to bi-sexual women who are seeking to enter into plural marriages, but only if they submit DNA samples to the Vatican Bank which prove they are free of any Asian heritage (this part has something to do with the Vatican agreement with the CCP). And I'm not even going to try to explain it, but after he told me this part of the story he suddenly went off on a tangent about how the Missing 411 series can be explained by extra-dimensional abductors hunting German people. I still can't figure out the connection, but it may have something to do with the Synod on Synodality.

But the point of all this is that "r4cs0," his allegedly bi-sexual girlfriend "tooiconic," and a large host of their followers have been tormenting me non-stop for the last several weeks. They say that when In Tergo Intrantes and Fiducia Supplicans are considered together, it obligates me to officiate a plural marriage they are planning to enter into with another Tumblr user named "takashi0" (who is a BRONY, just to make this whole thing even creepier). If I refuse, they claim they will call my bishop and have my actual marriage annulled by the church! I don't believe they can really do it, but they can certainly keep sending their followers to harass me! One of them called my boss at work today and started asking a bunch of questions about where he was when Catherine Cesnik was killed.

What do I do???

I am, wow, I don't have words. Wow. Just keep blocking them and try to remove any personal information from your blog

Important update: it's all fake apparently

[crownedpatriot11]

Hello, I'm a Catholic who recently signed up for Tumblr and I unfortunately feel like I really did not understand what I was getting into with this website. For the last several weeks, I've been subjected to a campaign of internet stalking by a large gang of insidious thugs on this site. And I would brush it off as normal internet trolling, except that they seem to really know a lot about our faith!

The problem started a few weeks ago, when a "Tumblr famous" user known as "r4cs0" messaged me. He claims to be the closest living relative of Pope John Paul I, who died after only 33 days on the throne. When a Pope dies, the death must be verified by striking him three times in the head with a silver hammer. According to r4cs0, a church historian has recently examined the hammer used on John Paul I and learned it was only 87% silver. Per the canon laws of 1919, the hammer must be at least 90% silver to be considered true silver. Because of this and other "irregularities" regarding the death, r4cs0 insists that Pope John Paul I is still LEGALLY alive and still the Pope! And as his closest living heir, this makes r4cs0 the highest living authority in the Catholic Church until the corpse is exhumed and struck with the correct hammer!

Now if this isn't crazy enough, it gets worse. r4cs0 has written a Papal bull called In Tergo Intrantes. Of course it's in Latin so I can't read it, but r4cs0 says that it authorized certain Vatican authorities located in the Tower of Nicholas V to grant special dispensations to bi-sexual women who are seeking to enter into plural marriages, but only if they submit DNA samples to the Vatican Bank which prove they are free of any Asian heritage (this part has something to do with the Vatican agreement with the CCP). And I'm not even going to try to explain it, but after he told me this part of the story he suddenly went off on a tangent about how the Missing 411 series can be explained by extra-dimensional abductors hunting German people. I still can't figure out the connection, but it may have something to do with the Synod on Synodality.

But the point of all this is that "r4cs0," his allegedly bi-sexual girlfriend "tooiconic," and a large host of their followers have been tormenting me non-stop for the last several weeks. They say that when In Tergo Intrantes and Fiducia Supplicans are considered together, it obligates me to officiate a plural marriage they are planning to enter into with another Tumblr user named "takashi0" (who is a BRONY, just to make this whole thing even creepier). If I refuse, they claim they will call my bishop and have my actual marriage annulled by the church! I don't believe they can really do it, but they can certainly keep sending their followers to harass me! One of them called my boss at work today and started asking a bunch of questions about where he was when Catherine Cesnik was killed.

What do I do???

I’m going to kill you dude

[vitamaeternum]

Hello, I'm a Catholic who recently signed up for Tumblr and I unfortunately feel like I really did not understand what I was getting into with this website. For the last several weeks, I've been subjected to a campaign of internet stalking by a large gang of insidious thugs on this site. And I would brush it off as normal internet trolling, except that they seem to really know a lot about our faith!

The problem started a few weeks ago, when a "Tumblr famous" user known as "r4cs0" messaged me. He claims to be the closest living relative of Pope John Paul I, who died after only 33 days on the throne. When a Pope dies, the death must be verified by striking him three times in the head with a silver hammer. According to r4cs0, a church historian has recently examined the hammer used on John Paul I and learned it was only 87% silver. Per the canon laws of 1919, the hammer must be at least 90% silver to be considered true silver. Because of this and other "irregularities" regarding the death, r4cs0 insists that Pope John Paul I is still LEGALLY alive and still the Pope! And as his closest living heir, this makes r4cs0 the highest living authority in the Catholic Church until the corpse is exhumed and struck with the correct hammer!

Now if this isn't crazy enough, it gets worse. r4cs0 has written a Papal bull called In Tergo Intrantes. Of course it's in Latin so I can't read it, but r4cs0 says that it authorized certain Vatican authorities located in the Tower of Nicholas V to grant special dispensations to bi-sexual women who are seeking to enter into plural marriages, but only if they submit DNA samples to the Vatican Bank which prove they are free of any Asian heritage (this part has something to do with the Vatican agreement with the CCP). And I'm not even going to try to explain it, but after he told me this part of the story he suddenly went off on a tangent about how the Missing 411 series can be explained by extra-dimensional abductors hunting German people. I still can't figure out the connection, but it may have something to do with the Synod on Synodality.

But the point of all this is that "r4cs0," his allegedly bi-sexual girlfriend "tooiconic," and a large host of their followers have been tormenting me non-stop for the last several weeks. They say that when In Tergo Intrantes and Fiducia Supplicans are considered together, it obligates me to officiate a plural marriage they are planning to enter into with another Tumblr user named "takashi0" (who is a BRONY, just to make this whole thing even creepier). If I refuse, they claim they will call my bishop and have my actual marriage annulled by the church! I don't believe they can really do it, but they can certainly keep sending their followers to harass me! One of them called my boss at work today and started asking a bunch of questions about where he was when Catherine Cesnik was killed.

What do I do???

Call him a Heretic and buy a gun for self defense. Then notify the proper authorities, that being the actual Vatican. I'm certain his Holiness will have something to say on the matter.

[godsfavoritespecialangel]

Hello, I'm a Catholic who recently signed up for Tumblr and I unfortunately feel like I really did not understand what I was getting into with this website. For the last several weeks, I've been subjected to a campaign of internet stalking by a large gang of insidious thugs on this site. And I would brush it off as normal internet trolling, except that they seem to really know a lot about our faith!

The problem started a few weeks ago, when a "Tumblr famous" user known as "r4cs0" messaged me. He claims to be the closest living relative of Pope John Paul I, who died after only 33 days on the throne. When a Pope dies, the death must be verified by striking him three times in the head with a silver hammer. According to r4cs0, a church historian has recently examined the hammer used on John Paul I and learned it was only 87% silver. Per the canon laws of 1919, the hammer must be at least 90% silver to be considered true silver. Because of this and other "irregularities" regarding the death, r4cs0 insists that Pope John Paul I is still LEGALLY alive and still the Pope! And as his closest living heir, this makes r4cs0 the highest living authority in the Catholic Church until the corpse is exhumed and struck with the correct hammer!

Now if this isn't crazy enough, it gets worse. r4cs0 has written a Papal bull called In Tergo Intrantes. Of course it's in Latin so I can't read it, but r4cs0 says that it authorized certain Vatican authorities located in the Tower of Nicholas V to grant special dispensations to bi-sexual women who are seeking to enter into plural marriages, but only if they submit DNA samples to the Vatican Bank which prove they are free of any Asian heritage (this part has something to do with the Vatican agreement with the CCP). And I'm not even going to try to explain it, but after he told me this part of the story he suddenly went off on a tangent about how the Missing 411 series can be explained by extra-dimensional abductors hunting German people. I still can't figure out the connection, but it may have something to do with the Synod on Synodality.

But the point of all this is that "r4cs0," his allegedly bi-sexual girlfriend "tooiconic," and a large host of their followers have been tormenting me non-stop for the last several weeks. They say that when In Tergo Intrantes and Fiducia Supplicans are considered together, it obligates me to officiate a plural marriage they are planning to enter into with another Tumblr user named "takashi0" (who is a BRONY, just to make this whole thing even creepier). If I refuse, they claim they will call my bishop and have my actual marriage annulled by the church! I don't believe they can really do it, but they can certainly keep sending their followers to harass me! One of them called my boss at work today and started asking a bunch of questions about where he was when Catherine Cesnik was killed.

What do I do???

[jh-newman-opn]

Pleaseeeee tell me everything you love about John Henry Newman 🤭

omg best ask ever . alas we'd be here until the second coming if I did that . to quote a friend. "Eleni you sound like you have a crush" (reader. it's not wrong).

Tl;dr.

Writes like he wants to be understood. Man has a point, and he wants you to know how he got there. People say he's flowery and difficult to read but this genuinely could not be more wrong... he's just Victorian. They be like that.

Very honest about his conclusions. Newman left Mary Mags and stopped working as an Anglican priest when he realised that what he taught and what the Church of England believed were not the same thing, and he didn't feel comfortable potentially misleading people, even when he felt very strongly about it. Converted whilst writing the first edition of An Essay on the Development because he realised he'd just disproved his own position.

Prophetic galaxy brain. Man basically wrote the theology underlying the ongoing synod, as well as being called unofficially "the father of Vatican II". His whole via media schtick is so needed right now!!!

More on that.... Newman is quoted out of context SO OFTEN and I find it quite funny. If you've ever seen that long quote about what an ideal gentleman is from some Catholic masculinity™ page, it's from An Idea of a University and Newman is actually mocking this kind of person as being very cultured and acceptable but ultimately, not much use.

Very spiritual. His sermons????? So good??????? Check out Waiting for Christ.

Short king. From some surreptitious measuring myself against his cassock and writing desk, I estimate he was about 5'4" at most. SMOL.

Just seems like a kind, sensitive person. Allegedly wept the whole way through writing the Apologia because he was so upset about being misrepresented. Never condemned anglicanism because he saw it as doing the job in England the Catholic Church should have been doing but wasn't able to due to oppression. Never tried to persuade people he'd already got into high Anglicanism to convert to Catholicism because he didn't want to be seen as a grifter or dishonest.

Always backed himself. When man was evangelical, he thought the Pope was the Antichrist. When he got into the high church thing he literally invented a new kind of Anglicanism to support it. When he became Catholic he was made a Cardinal. Man never did a single thing by halves.

Multitalented Queen. Wrote some banging poetry, some of which is now set to equally banging music. Dream of Gerontius, anyone? Lead Kindly Light?

Had the last laugh. He did not want to dug up for relics after he died, so he made sure he was buried in a place where he would decompose very quickly. Lo, when they dug him up for bones, he was not there. There are no first class relics of him. Because he didn't want there to be.

My favourite writings, in some vague order: Apologia pro Vita Sua, Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, On Consulting the Faithful on Matters of Doctrine, Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, Parochial and Plain Sermons.

And below, one of my favourite pictures: Newman (right) and his bestie of 30 years, Ambrose St John. They were buried in the same grave.

[head-post]

Pope Francis accused of using homophobic slur again

Pope Francis has again used a derogatory term for gay people in a private meeting where he is said to have reiterated the need for caution against priests, The Independent reports.

The initial outrage came after the head of the Catholic Church used the Italian word “frociaggine” at a conference of Italian bishops on May 20, where one of the topics of discussion was whether celibate gay men should be allowed to train for the priesthood in Catholic seminaries.

The Pope reportedly said that some seminaries already have too much frociaggine – which translates as “f*****ness” – in response to suggestions that gays should be allowed to train for the priesthood in Catholic seminaries. The 87-year-old pontiff is said to have spoken out against the idea, saying that while it was important to accept everyone, it could lead to a person leading a double life.

A Vatican apology published later claimed that “the Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms.” Several bishops in the audience at the time told Italian newspapers that the pontiff may not have realised the expression was offensive.

New incident

Francis is now accused of repeating the insult in a private meeting on Tuesday.

According to the Italian news agency Ansa and the Catholic website Silere Non Possum, which claims to have a recording of his meeting with 200 young priests, Francis told the priests that “there is an atmosphere of frociaggine in the Vatican.”

Asked about the latest report, the Vatican press office referred to a statement released about Tuesday’s meeting with priests in which the Pope reiterated the need to welcome gays into the Church and caution about them becoming priests.

The Pope had previously been seen as taking a somewhat less hostile stance towards the LGBT+ community than his predecessors.

In 2013, Pope Francis said gay people should not be marginalised and told reporters:

If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?

Last year, the Pope approved a decree allowing priests to bless same-sex couples – but not in the context of marriage, civil unions or ordinary church rituals. The Vatican has said the Church has no right to bless same-sex unions because God cannot “bless sin.”

However, the Pope said in a letter in 2023:

We cannot be judges who only deny, push back, exclude.

Asked about Francis’s initial use of the slur on May 20, a spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales previously said:

Echoing the consistent message of the Synod and this papacy, the Catholic Church is a place of welcome for all.

Read more HERE

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (October 22)

Saint John Paul II is perhaps one of the most well-known pontiffs in recent history.

He is most remembered for his charismatic nature, his love of youth and his world travels, along with his role in the fall of communism in Europe during his 27-year papacy.

Karol Józef Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since his October 1978 election to the papacy, was born in the Polish town of Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometers from Krakow, on 18 May 1920.

He was the youngest of three children born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska.

His mother died in 1929. His eldest brother Edmund, a doctor, died in 1932. His father, a non-commissioned army officer, died in 1941. A sister, Olga, had died before he was born.

He was baptized on 20 June 1920 in the parish church of Wadowice by Fr. Franciszek Zak, made his First Holy Communion at age 9, and was confirmed at 18.

Upon graduation from Marcin Wadowita high school in Wadowice, he enrolled in Krakow's Jagiellonian University in 1938.

The Nazi occupation forces closed the university in 1939 and young Karol had to work in a quarry (1940-1944).

He then worked in the Solvay chemical factory to earn his living and to avoid being deported to Germany.

In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Krakow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, archbishop of Krakow.

At the same time, Karol Wojtyla was one of the pioneers of the "Rhapsodic Theatre," also clandestine.

After the Second World War, he continued his studies in the major seminary of Krakow, once it had re-opened, and in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University.

He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Sapieha in Krakow on 1 November 1946.

Shortly afterwards, Cardinal Sapieha sent him to Rome where he worked under the guidance of the French Dominican, Garrigou-Lagrange.

He finished his doctorate in theology in 1948 with a thesis on the subject of faith in the works of St. John of the Cross (Doctrina de fide apud Sanctum Ioannem a Cruce).

At that time, during his vacations, he exercised his pastoral ministry among the Polish immigrants of France, Belgium and Holland.

In 1948, he returned to Poland and was vicar of various parishes in Krakow as well as chaplain to university students.

This period lasted until 1951 when he again took up his studies in philosophy and theology.

In 1953, he defended a thesis on the "Evaluation of the possibility of founding a Catholic ethic on the ethical system of Max Scheler" at Lublin Catholic University.

He became professor of moral theology and social ethics in the major seminary of Krakow and in the Faculty of Theology of Lublin.

On 4 July 1958, he was appointed titular bishop of Ombi and auxiliary of Krakow by Pope Pius XII.

He was consecrated by Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak on 28 September 1958 in Wawel Cathedral, Krakow.

On 13 January 1964, he was appointed archbishop of Krakow by Pope Paul VI, who made him a cardinal on 26 June 1967 with the title of S. Cesareo in Palatio of the order of deacons, later elevated pro illa vice to the order of priests.

Besides taking part in Vatican Council II (1962-1965) where he made an important contribution to drafting the Constitution Gaudium et spes, Cardinal Wojtyla participated in all the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops.

The Cardinals elected him Pope at the Conclave of 16 October 1978. He took the name of John Paul II.

On October 22, the Lord's Day, he solemnly inaugurated his Petrine ministry as the 263rd successor to the Apostle.

His pontificate, one of the longest in the history of the Church, lasted nearly 27 years.

Driven by his pastoral solicitude for all Churches and by a sense of openness and charity to the entire human race, John Paul II exercised the Petrine ministry with a tireless missionary spirit, dedicating it all his energy.

He made 104 pastoral visits outside Italy and 146 within Italy. As Bishop of Rome, he visited 317 of the city's 333 parishes.

He had more meetings than any of his predecessors with the People of God and the leaders of Nations.

More than 17,600,000 pilgrims participated in the General Audiences held on Wednesdays (more than 1160), not counting other special audiences and religious ceremonies [more than 8 million pilgrims during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 alone], and the millions of faithful he met during pastoral visits in Italy and throughout the world.

We must also remember the numerous government personalities he encountered during 38 official visits, 738 audiences and meetings held with Heads of State, and 246 audiences and meetings with Prime Ministers.

His love for young people brought him to establish the World Youth Days.

The 19 WYDs celebrated during his pontificate brought together millions of young people from all over the world.

At the same time, his care for the family was expressed in the World Meetings of Families, which he initiated in 1994.

John Paul II successfully encouraged dialogue with the Jews and with the representatives of other religions, whom he invited several times to prayer meetings for peace, especially in Assisi.

Under his guidance, the Church prepared herself for the third millennium and celebrated the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 in accordance with the instructions given in the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio adveniente.

The Church then faced the new epoch, receiving his instructions in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte in which he indicated to the faithful their future path.

With the Year of the Redemption, the Marian Year and the Year of the Eucharist, he promoted the spiritual renewal of the Church.

He gave an extraordinary impetus to Canonizations and Beatifications, focusing on countless examples of holiness as an incentive for the people of our time.

He celebrated 147 beatification ceremonies during which he proclaimed 1,338 Blesseds and 51 canonizations for a total of 482 saints.

He made Thérèse of the Child Jesus a Doctor of the Church.

He considerably expanded the College of Cardinals, creating 231 Cardinals (plus one in pectore) in 9 consistories.

He also called six full meetings of the College of Cardinals.

He organized 15 Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops — six Ordinary General Assemblies (1980, 1983, 1987, 1990, 1994, and 2001); one Extraordinary General Assembly (1985); and eight Special Assemblies (1980,1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998 (2), and 1999).

His most important Documents include 14 Encyclicals, 15 Apostolic Exhortations, 11 Apostolic Constitutions, 45 Apostolic Letters.

He promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the light of Tradition as authoritatively interpreted by the Second Vatican Council.

He also reformed the Eastern and Western Codes of Canon Law, created new Institutions, and reorganized the Roman Curia.

As a private Doctor, he also published five books of his own: "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" (October 1994), "Gift and Mystery, on the fiftieth anniversary of my ordination as priest" (November 1996), "Roman Triptych" poetic meditations (March 2003), "Arise, Let us Be Going" (May 2004) and "Memory and Identity" (February 2005).

In the light of Christ risen from the dead, on 2 April A.D. 2005, at 9:37 pm, while Saturday was drawing to a close and the Lord's Day was already beginning, the Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday, the Church's beloved Pastor, John Paul II, departed this world for the Father.

From that evening until April 8, date of the funeral of the late Pontiff, more than three million pilgrims came to Rome to pay homage to the mortal remains of the Pope.

Some of them queued up to 24 hours to enter St. Peter's Basilica.

On April 28, the Holy Father Benedict XVI announced that the normal five-year waiting period before beginning the cause of beatification and canonization would be waived for John Paul II.

The cause was officially opened by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome, on 28 June 2005. He was beatified on 1 May 2011.

On 27 April 2014, he was canonized by Pope Francis during a ceremony in St. Peter's Square.

In an April 24 message sent to the Church in Poland, Pope Francis gave thanks for the 'great gift' of the new Saint, saying of John Paul II that he is grateful, "as all the members of the people of God, for his untiring service, his spiritual guidance, and for his extraordinary testimony of holiness."

[spiritualdirections]

I thought this might be of general interest.

I gave a presentation at the 23rd Annual Conference of Notre Dame's De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture a few months back, and someone asked me to work the talk into a full paper. I've just finished that, and posted it on Academia.edu here.

Here's the abstract:

"In recent years, important voices in the Vatican and the Synod of Bishops have drawn a contrast between the Church’s doctrine on the one hand, and what is “merciful” or “pastoral” on the other. The doctrines are praised as true and just, and no argument is brought forward to change them in themselves. However, it is argued, when the purportedly praiseworthy doctrines are “applied” to “real, actual, concrete situations”, merciful and pastoral considerations should lead the Church to allow the faithful to not practice the doctrines. This vision of mercy and the pastoral seems to be associating mercy with equity or prudence, which makes the general rules of justice more determinate in concrete situations to better serve justice. Instead, it actually associates mercy with leniency, with not holding people to the standards of justice and what is right. There are insuperable problems for these ways of understanding mercy. Mercy is best understood as the virtue that seeks to right wrongs, so that mercy does not set aside justice, but rather has justice as its end and seeks to bring about justice in a fallen world. The merciful and pastoral approach to sinners is not to lower the standards for them, but to help them rise to meet those standards. Only a mercy that maintains and upholds the high expectations of justice promotes the dignity of those to whom it is shown."